Ethical Research: Curse of Plagiarism

Transcription

1 शवक म र G Sivakumar ச வக ம ர Computer Science and Engineering भ रत य पर द गक स स थ न म बई (IIT Bombay) siva@iitbacin May 5, 2011 The Good (Open Democratized Access) The Bad (Ease of Plagiarism) The Ugly (Aftermath of Unethical Practices)

2 ज ञ नम परमम ध य यम न च रह यर न च र जह यर न भर त भ ज यम न च भ रक र व यय क त वधर त एव नत य वद धन सवर धनपर ध न It cannot be stolen by thieves, cannot be taken away by the king, cannot be divided among brothers and does not cause a load If spent, it always multiplies The wealth of knowledge is the greatest among all wealths If I have seen further [than others] it is by standing on the shoulders of giants Issac Newton Budapest Open Access Initiative makes a very strong case ``free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers '' lists 6474 journals, articles शवक म र G Sivakumar ச வக ம ர Computer Science and Engineering भ रत य पर द गक स स थ न म बई (IIT B EthicalIIT Research: Bombay's Curse of Plagiarism motto is the title of this slide

3 Information Hierarchy How has this impacted ethical research? Production versus Consumption of Knowledge

4 What ``PhD'' Really Stands for Take your pick (from Patiently hoping for a Degree Piled higher and Deeper Professorship? hah! Dream on! Please hire Desperate Pretty heavily Depressed Pour him (or her) a Drink Philosophically Disturbed Probably headed for Divorce Probably heavily in Debt Parents have Doubts Patiently headed Downhill Permanent head Damage Potential heavy Drinker Pizza hut Driver Doctor of Philosophy (why philosophy?) Who is a Professor? (just another job?) Why do research? Name and Fame? Healt and Wealth? Save India, if not the world? Don't worry, be happy?

5 How many PhDs are there? The US produces about 1,400 PhDs in computer science annually and China about 3,000 By stark comparison, India annual computer science PhD production languishes at roughly 40 That number is about the same as that for Israel, a nation with roughly 5% of India population size -- Forbes article Some reasonable estimates (Rangan Banerjee report, DST secretary talk slides)- about 8000 PhD annually in Science and Engineering Half Empty Folks: This is terrible What about demographic bulge/dividend? Who will fill all the faculty positions? Half Full Folks: Rate of increase is great! If you divide by national investment on R&D we fare very well! Quality is more important than quantity A deadly mix of this shortage, inflexible rules and 6th Pay Commission scales is fertile breeding ground for unethical practices in research

6 Give credit wherever it is due! Plagiarism (cut-paste culture) has destroyed many promising careers

7 Wikipedia Article Good Bad Ugly

8 Society for Scientific Values Yet another reactive, adhoc attempt? Too little, too late? List of cases- Vice-Chancellors, reputed Professors,

9 Way Forward? Good Bad Ugly Ethics/Dharma comes more from within The dilemma of ethics for a scientist is epitomized by what Duryodhana of Mahabharat said I know what I ought to do but I cannot do it; I know what I ought not do but I cannot help doing it - Prof Valiathan Too many excuses, feeble rationalizations Strong case for Lok Pal, zero-tolerance